Aussie Vodafone, Telstra Share

Vodafone Australia and Telstra Wholesale to try sharing mobile base station infrastructure in areas where duplicate coverage existsMELBOURNE, Australia -- In an industry first, Vodafone Australia and Telstra Wholesale today announced a network partnering trial. The pilot project, which will take place in central regional Victoria, will assess the viability of sharing mobile base station infrastructure in areas where duplicate coverage exists.

Grahame Maher, Managing Director, Vodafone Australia, said that if successful, Vodafone would progress further network partnering with Telstra Wholesale on a commercial basis to minimise the costs of duplicated elements of each carrier's GSM infrastructure in regional and rural Australia.

"This will ensure a competitive and efficient mobile services environment for the benefit of customers in those areas," Grahame said.

"Let's face it - customers don't care who operates the base stations - they just want the best possible service and choice in mobile providers. Network partnering that maintains that customer choice while reducing costs is a smart and logical solution that benefits all."

Ms Deena Shiff, Managing Director, Telstra Wholesale, said: "This project will allow Vodafone and Telstra to share elements of their GSM base station infrastructure, removing costly and unnecessary duplication in regional and rural Australia."

"This is a new commercial model that benefits everyone by removing unnecessary duplication at the network layer, while promoting competition in services for the benefit of consumers," said Ms Shiff.

According to Grahame: "This is a win-win for Vodafone, Telstra and regional customers. This network partnering aims to improve our existing standard of network service, but more importantly ensure its financial viability in regional Australia. If all goes according to plan, we will roll out the network partnering approach to benefit more customers," Grahame said.

"We're now leveraging synergies between our networks, and with the support of our joint vendor, Ericsson, we are taking a partnership approach on rural and regional infrastructure."

Vodafone Group plc

Telstra Corp.